Brian intentionally "changing" his voice

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Sounds like a blast!

[MBE]

Brian told me that he wanted to try something different and several of his friends have told me that he did try to destory his old voice by chain smoking. Because the change was so quick I think it was honestly on purpose.

[Jim V.]

Brian told me that he wanted to try something different and several of his friends have told me that he did try to destory his old voice by chain smoking. Because the change was so quick I think it was honestly on purpose.

Hmm, he honestly told you that he wanted to try something different? Well I guess we just have to accept that as good of a reason as any. However, did he need to destroy his old voice to sing in a different way? Hmm. Yeah it does seem to be on purpose. But maybe we'll hear some more info and figure out what this is all about.

[punkinhead]

My favorite Brian voice is his soft midrange voice like in Sail Plane

Lets make a list of other songs that Brian has these type of peaceful vocals

[matt-zeus]

My favorite Brian voice is his soft midrange voice like in Sail Plane

Lets make a list of other songs that Brian has these type of peaceful vocals

That's my favourite era of Brians voice, the 67 - 72 ish time. 'Busy doin Nothing', 'I'd love just once to see you' etc... his falsetto is great around this time too, quite feminine and 'thinner' but still reall cool.

Brian can still hit those highs. When he chooses to. 

Seriously you think he could still hit those highs? I was listening the "Surf's Up" 04 and I realized that they shouldn't have double or triple tracked him or whatever they did at the end. It should have just been his voice. Would have sounded better IMO.

He does nail the 'Childrens song' bit though, not sure if they fiddled with it but it sounds all Brian to me, no Foskett doubling.

[Reverend Rock]

My favorite Brian voice is his soft midrange voice like in Sail Plane

Lets make a list of other songs that Brian has these type of peaceful vocals

That's my favourite era of Brians voice, the 67 - 72 ish time. 'Busy doin Nothing', 'I'd love just once to see you' etc... his falsetto is great around this time too, quite feminine and 'thinner' but still reall cool.

Brian can still hit those highs. When he chooses to. 

Seriously you think he could still hit those highs? I was listening the "Surf's Up" 04 and I realized that they shouldn't have double or triple tracked him or whatever they did at the end. It should have just been his voice. Would have sounded better IMO.

He does nail the 'Childrens song' bit though, not sure if they fiddled with it but it sounds all Brian to me, no Foskett doubling.

I would put his BWPS performance of "Windchimes" in my own personal top ten "Best Brian Wilson Lead Vocals Ever".

[Mike's Beard]

I love his Doo Wop early style of singing the best, it's just beautiful. Once the material started to change it was obvious it wouldn't fit in anymore with what they were doing.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Brian told me that he wanted to try something different and several of his friends have told me that he did try to destory his old voice by chain smoking. Because the change was so quick I think it was honestly on purpose.

Snorting large volumes of cocaine can accomplish the same thing - and the damage is permanent. I'm not sure that smoking in such a short span could achieve those results. Or so I've read....

[Mike's Beard]

80-100 cigs a day. So you can end up sounding like Marge's spinster sisters on "The Simpsons"? Just the thought of it makes my throat feel sore! Surely if you can sing as well as Brian could, training yourself to sing in a lower key couldn't have been that much of a stretch?

[Amy B.]

80-100 cigs a day. So you can end up sounding like Marge's spinster sisters on "The Simpsons"? Just the thought of it makes my throat feel sore! Surely if you can sing as well as Brian could, training yourself to sing in a lower key couldn't have been that much of a stretch?

I can't even imagine 100 cigarettes a day. True, that's 5 packs, which a lot of people smoke per day. But still. Even if you only sleep 5 hours a night, that's 19 hours in which to smoke 100 cigarettes. Blech.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Gotta remember though, he was doing a LOT of white at the time. That makes you smoke more...

[Ganz Allein]

Tony Bennett did a lot of cocaine and pot for several years, yet his voice stayed strong and he never lost pitch/phrasing control.  A lot of singers have done tons of coke, but can you name one who's had such a sudden change in his voice like Brian had? The closest I can think of is Evan Dando of the Lemonheads. He fodaed his voice up pretty bad when he was addicted to crack, but it recovered after he kicked his habit.  In Brian's case, it had to be an intentional destruction of the voice (with cigarettes, cocaine, or whatever) to have it change so much so fast, especially if people who know him are saying so. Have Al, Mike, or Bruce ever commented on the vocal change?

[XY]

I know someone who smoked a couple of ciggies while having a cold. After that, his speaking voice was around 1 octave deeper and didn't recover.

[Mr. Cohen]

 Brian sounded pretty happy about his voice around '76/'77. He bragged in an interview about how his voice was the one most suited for the older audience of "30 to 40 year old listeners" out of the group. We know he admired Frank Sinatra and other lounge singers at the time (or even the deep-voiced The Righteous Brothers, as he covered two of their Spector produced songs around the time), and it's easy to see how he might have intentionally been trying to make his voice sound that way. I believe that he smoked cigarettes because he enjoyed them, but to go from what we would assume to be your average smoker to 3-4+ packs a day is a bit ridiculous, even if you snort cocaine. Unless, that is, it was an intentional change. We'll never know for sure, but it's believable...

[tpesky]

Tony Bennett did a lot of cocaine and pot for several years, yet his voice stayed strong and he never lost pitch/phrasing control.  A lot of singers have done tons of coke, but can you name one who's had such a sudden change in his voice like Brian had? The closest I can think of is Evan Dando of the Lemonheads. He fodaed his voice up pretty bad when he was addicted to crack, but it recovered after he kicked his habit.  In Brian's case, it had to be an intentional destruction of the voice (with cigarettes, cocaine, or whatever) to have it change so much so fast, especially if people who know him are saying so. Have Al, Mike, or Bruce ever commented on the vocal change?

I believe that Al has gone on record as saying he believed Brian intentionally tried to change/destroy his voice.

[slothrop]

If Brian really did intentionally try to destroy his voice it just goes to show what a disturbed mental state he must've been in at the time.

[the captain]

I consider Brian's statements that he intentionally wrecked his voice to sound manlier as analogous to his statements that he chose to shelve Smile because the public wasn't ready for it: the best excuse he could think of at the time.

[Ganz Allein]

Brian sounded pretty happy about his voice around '76/'77. He bragged in an interview about how his voice was the one most suited for the older audience of "30 to 40 year old listeners" out of the group. We know he admired Frank Sinatra and other lounge singers at the time (or even the deep-voiced The Righteous Brothers, as he covered two of their Spector produced songs around the time), and it's easy to see how he might have intentionally been trying to make his voice sound that way. I believe that he smoked cigarettes because he enjoyed them, but to go from what we would assume to be your average smoker to 3-4+ packs a day is a bit ridiculous, even if you snort cocaine. Unless, that is, it was an intentional change. We'll never know for sure, but it's believable...

The fact that he never seemed to be upset about his voice change is more evidence that he was intentional about making it sound that way. It also could've been a passive-aggressive reaction to the "Brian's Back" campaign - "I'm back? I don't wanna be, but if I have to, check out how I sing now!" (Although if the campaign started after his voice changed, that theory is merda.)

[adamghost]

I've asked this question around a few places.  Nobody seems to know for sure, but the consensus of belief is that it was deliberate.

[Mr. Cohen]

Look guys, it was all joke, Brian's voice hadn't really changed! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpziXC7i0ms&feature=related

[Jim V.]

Wow! He sure sounds a lot like Carl there! How'd that happen? 

[send me a picture and i'll tell you]

This is obviously from post-1998, when Brian filled in for Carl after he died.  You know, I always thought he sounded more like Carl since getting the teeth done, which actually means this clip must be from after 2004. 

 

This clip shows how tight that band is-- someone starts Barbara Ann on an F, and the entire band enters perfectly in G major!